As the authority responsible for the port infrastructure management in Hamburg, the HPA sees itself as an end user of a service like RAPID and, in addition to technical infrastructure support, primarily provides expert perspectives and use case environments.

The Hamburg Port Authority AöR (HPA) has been providing future-oriented port management services offering one face to the customer since 2005. To ensure safe and efficient processes in the Port of Hamburg and meet the demands of a growing port, the HPA relies on intelligent and innovative solutions. The HPA is responsible for resource-efficient, sustainable planning and the implementation of infrastructure projects in the port. It is the contact point for all kinds of questions concerning the waterside and landside infrastructure, the safety of navigation for vessels, port railway facilities, port property management and business conditions in the port. The HPA ensures the provision of land as required, carries out all statutory duties placed on it and provides port industry services. It markets port- specific technical knowledge and represents the interests of the Port of Hamburg at a national and international level.

The HPA manages and is responsible for the infrastructure and facilities in the port of Hamburg. It represents both sovereign and commercial interests.

In the “sovereign part ” of its tasks, the HPA plans to use drones primarily in the fields of “prevention and management of special events” in order to make existing processes safer, optimise them and introduce new services. Especially in these very time-critical areas, drones represent a significant improvement in efficiency. In the event of a disaster, for example, a video image can be made available much faster in the HPA’s very extensive and complex area of responsibility, and it can be provided much more cost-efficiently and sustainably in comparison to a helicopter mission. This is an urgently needed service, especially with regard to the rescue and evacuation of people, which must be introduced immediately. This and other services are to be introduced in the port of Hamburg in the short and medium-term as safety-enhancing measures

Regarding commercial tasks, the HPA would like to make parts of the infrastructure management more intelligent and sustainable. This also includes the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), for example, which will be used to automate inspection services in the future. In doing so, the HPA is following a digital strategy on intelligent port infrastructure management. Here, too, the HPA’s interests focus on the goals of “increasing safety, for example, by means of maintenance routines in the structural inspection and the resulting possibility of early detection, as well as on more sustainable and efficient infrastructure management.